Dismantling utopia

By the 1980s the Soviet Union had matched the United States in military might and far surpassed it in the production of steel, timber, concrete, and oil. But the electronic whirlwind that was transforming the global economy had been locked out by Communist leaders. Heirs to an old Russian tradition of censorship, they had banned photocopiers, prohibited accurate maps and controlled word-for-word even the scripts of stand-up comedians. Hoping to "renew socialism" and save a Communist system in decay, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power determined to lift restrictions on the control of…